The Malik Report
Red Wings try-out Mike Knuble, depth guy or 25-goal-scorer?
by George Malik on 01/14/13 at 02:00 PM ET
Comments (3)
ESPN's Sean Allen has penned a fantasy hockey column noting intriguing personnel moves by NHL teams which may help you in your fantasy hockey pool, and he offers an unconventional observation regarding Red Wings try-out Mike Knuble...And a more conventional observation regarding Damien Brunner:
Mike Knuble is apparently headed to camp with the Detroit Red Wings. His numbers dropped off significantly with the Washington Capitals least season after he strung together nearly a decade of 20-goal seasons. But, to be fair to Knuble, the Capitals were not the place to be to score goals last season and it's likely his one-dimensional offensive game was not being used effectively by former coach Dale Hunter. Knuble certainly would have 25 goals left in his tank if he is used on a scoring line by the Red Wings. However, things are getting a little crowded for the Wings on offense.
Damien Brunner is a big reason the Wings might not have any room for Knuble or some of their homegrown rookies on a scoring line this season. After leading Switzerland's top hockey league in scoring last season, Brunner was out in front of the scoring race again this season. What made it impressive this season is that the league was filled with names like Jason Spezza, Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, John Tavares, Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron. There was one more major NHLer playing in the league with Brunner, too. In fact, Henrik Zetterberg was Brunner's linemate and helped him to his league-leading 57 points in 33 games. Now the two are on a line together at the Red Wings training camp with Pavel Datsyuk. If Brunner has enough chemistry with Zetterberg to stay with him on a scoring line, he becomes an enormous sleeper for this season.
Continued...
And, for the record, ESPN's Matthew Coller, did not list Jimmy Howard among his top 10 goalies list in an ESPN insider-only column.
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The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.
I like Knuble as much as the next guy but I’d be very surprised if the Wings had more than 2 players with that many goals.
Posted by SolidTG7 on 01/14/13 at 02:11 PM ET